the crawfords: July 2011

I am slowly but surely getting caught up on posting pictures. Very late, here are pictures from Caedmon's birthday. I can't believe that he is 7 years old already! Time is going so fast!

The day before his actual birthday we had a little party. Caedmon has recently been really into making paper airplanes so that was the "theme" for his party. I was hoping for a paper airplane making competition but it didn't happen. Oh well.

Haleigh made Caedmon a "Dave" outfit!

Payton just had to try it on too!

The next day for his actual birthday I got to take him on a date to a local pottery store where he got to choose something to glaze. He glazed a little dog to look like Roxy. Then we went to the pool. It was fun to go with just him! That night was Hickory Park with family of course. There are a lot of birthdays in July for the Crawfords. Becky's, Eric's, and Caedmon's.

Happy 7th Caedmon!

Happy 29th Eric! (I think he is playing with Reagan in this picture and that's why he looks like a goof.)

Happy 50th Mom!

Yep. New flash! We are homeschooling! Weird. Freaky. Exciting. I, Jess Crawford, will be a homeschooling mom. Eek. First my disclosure: this blog post is NOT a post about how awesome I am now that I'm a homeschooling mom. It's NOT a, "look at me I'm a better parent then you cause I homeschool" post.
I'll start at the beginning and explain my disclosure and our decision making process. God is so silly sometimes . . .
So when Caedmon was in kindergarten about half way through Jason brought up the idea of homeschooling to me. We mulled over it for a very long time contemplating both public school and homeschooling, the pros and the cons of both and praying about what God wanted for our family. By the end of the school year we had come to the conclusion that we were strong supports of public school and Caedmon started another year. We were doing what we believed was right for our family at the time. The year went okay and Mom thought that all was well. Then Jason started reading stuff and brought the idea of homeschooling up again. He had been feeling some conviction for our family. The idea being brought up again MADE ME MAD! I thought that we had made our decision and made it well and was not happy about talking it over again. That's kind when God smacked me upside the head and said, "Be quiet and still. Follow your husband." All in one day I went from being angry about it to totally softened to it. Only God could have done that! He began to show me the great things about homeschooling and also started pointing out some things in Caedmon that made me desire to have more "character training" time with him. I'm slightly freaked out, but God continues to excite me about getting to teach my children and daily watch them learn and learn again myself! We will be trying out Classical Conversations here in Ames. I felt like I needed the structure and have some guidance. We will see how we like it and take a year at a time. I also look forward to using every moment as a teachable moment and putting into action what we are learning. I'm really excited to be relearning some history myself! We also knew that we would probably need to do some homeschooling with our African children once they arrive so it actually make sense to just start now.
Okay, so to explain my disclosure. In the past, while we were first considering homeschooling I was MAJORLY turned off by a somewhat snobby attitude that some homeschooling people may have. Now, please don't freak out on me! There are SOME homeschooling peeps out there who believe that homeschooling is THE RIGHT AND ONLY way to educate your child. I happen to not care for this attitude. Sorry if you happen to think or portray this attitude, but lets be honest here. When you put off that vibe, it does not make people want to be associated with the homeschooling world. Part of why I wasn't attracted to the idea. I actually came across a comment on a friends Facebook status once about public vs. homeschool that just set this thinking in even deeper for me. Something about how if she wanted to be a lazy parent then, yeah she would stick her kids on a school bus too. Grrr . . . Seriously lady? That's a pretty bold statement! Public schooling families, WHO DO IT RIGHT, are far from lazy. I know MANY public schooling parents who are very involved with their children's education and their kids are super great, smart, hard working kids who go on to be very successful Godly adults! There have been many other stupid things said by other, in my opinion, just plain arrogant people about schooling on both sides. BUT this is how I've decided to handle these people and my own homeschooling attitude. Ready? Here it is. We are homeschooling because that's what we believe God wants for OUR family at this. That does not mean we will be awesome at it or that we are better then anyone else. It's simply what we think God has for us right now. I'm convinced that by surrounding myself with others, homeschooling or not, who are grace giving, supportive, and as seriously flawed as I am then things will be fine. I understand that some days will totally suck and I will think that I am failing my kids as a teacher. Thankfully I have the grace of God on my side and He will hopefully continue to bring the sun up for a new day and a cleaned off marker board to start again with.
One of my favorite ideas about homeschooling so far is the fact that if we are struggling over math...reading... whatever it may be, we can stop and pray about it together! That's a pretty powerful learning tool right there!
SO please pray for us! This is going to be a giant change for our family and we will all need much grace as we figure out what homeschooling looks like for us!